Why do I zone out and forget so easily?

This frequently bothers me. I noticed it the other day in the shower at the gym (which is where I usually notice it). Sometimes, I literally forget the last X number of minutes, no recollection at all of what I was just doing. This is the most annoying when the memory would include whether or not I have already washed my hair.

Why this upsets so much I do not know. It could be the fact that I will end up using twice the amount of shampoo that I normally would. It might mean that my shower will take twice as long as usual, resulting in extra wrinkly digits. Or it could just be the fact that my brain doesn't work very well, and my short term memory has gone to shit.

Now that I think about it, this isn't limited to just the shower. Back in the day when I used to drive, I would frequently realize that I had traveled many miles, usually on familiar ground, and could not recall for the life of me passing any familiar landmarks.

So it looks like I'm leaning towards a theory of not registering familiar and repetitive actions/images/places 100 percent of the time, resulting in an inability to recall these mundane items successfully. The thing is, some of these are very important. Like my shower example. The wasted time or shampoo plus the self-induced madness, that can ruin the first hour or so of my day as I try to figure out again why my brain functions so.

The driving bit doesn't bother me so much. The other case that really bothers me is when reading a book. I'll go for a few pages, and completely forget what I had just read. I will re-read it, and it's not familiar one bit. If I read a book 10 years ago and pick it up again, many of the words seem familiar. Not so much in this immediate recall scenario.

Back to the shower situation. I find my mind wandering frequently in the shower. I'll think about the day ahead if it's in the morning, or the fun and debauchery I have planned if it's the evening, or sometimes I'll just get downright reflective and think about whatever it is that's on my mind. I still don't buy this as an excuse for my inability to recall shampooing.

The most frustrating bit is that I will smell my hair, and since I've already talked myself into several scenarios and possibilities, I can never accurately determine the smell of my hair, clean vs. unclean. That makes no sense, considering the usual mintyness of gym shampoos.

Continually frustrated,

Tommy

"Gym dudes"

I love "gym guys". Not like, love in a physical way (sorry, I just love women), but in an "I cannot believe you act like that" way and that people like you exist and actually function in this world. Sort of like when I say that I love the

Allow me to explain. You first notice a gym guy at the gym (durp). Gym guys wear extensive gym clothing, usually including (but not limited to) weightlifting gloves, brand new shorts (I have used the same shorts for 7 or 8 years, they don't wear out, trust me), some sort of synthetic gym shirt (UnderArmor is a definite red flag), and always an iPod, almost always strapped to their arms, something else I never understood. I mean, sure if you're running it makes sense, but if you're straining your arms, wouldn't you worry about the strap stretching? Or cutting off circulation?

Anyways, now that the image is in your head, the defining characteristic of the gym guy is the grunting and heavy breathing during weightlifting. This can be guttural, animalistic, and borders on downright sexual for some of the extreme cases. I sometimes think to myself "really, who is having sex on the gym floor right now in front of everyone?" when I realize it's only a gym dude doing squats.

So there's your gym guy. So what inspired this post? Why do I love these guys? It's the non-exercise behaviors that they frequently exhibit.

For instance, yesterday, as I was taking a leak prior to working out, I thought the guy next to me was bench pressing in the stall. I know guys are known for audible urination, and acknowledging aloud the force and intensity of their pissing, but this was absurd. A grunt to unzip, a deep breath before preparing, and the exhale to finish. It was a science.

I ran into this same guy as I was showering up after the workout. Grunts and deep breathing while combing his hair, and even when using a q-tip to clean out the ears.

I only hope he's a computer programmer like me, and somewhere today is letting a grunt of joy out as he fixes a bug that's been in his code for a while.